Utah Lawmakers Introduce Guest Worker Bill

Utah lawmakers unveiled Wednesday a compromise immigration bill that would have the state partner with a Mexican state on a guest worker program, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday.

Lawmakers in the state have been at odds over proposed immigration laws. The new bill sponsored by Republicans state Rep. Stephen Sandstrom and Sen. Curt Bramble would set up a program to work within the existing federal guest worker provisions. The bill would allow Utah business to find needed workers through Nuevo Leon. The state would basically act as the middleman.

The new bill would doesn’t address the 110,000 illegal immigrants already in the state, but it does address the reason why most of them came, said Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who helped write the proposed law.
“They are waiting and ready to come to this country,” Shurtleff said. “But they need a portal.”

Sandstrom has also been pushing for bill to toughen enforcement of illegal immigration.

Utah lawmakers unveiled Wednesday a compromise immigration bill that would have the state partner with a Mexican state on a guest worker program, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday.
Lawmakers in the state have been at odds over proposed immigration laws. The new bill...